Stalling in strong tidal streams

South Pacific Familyadventure 2008
Claes Brodin
Tue 7 Jun 2022 13:36
Upon approach to St Peter Port we had a strong countercurrent between 4-5kts and when pushing the throttle John Deere started stalling with the Floscan swinging between 1-5 gallons (swinging more than 1/2 gallon indicates air in the fuelsystem).
Shortly after we had an engine shutdown for the first time during my seven years with Dora Mac. Having a strong current bringing us towards nearby rocks we only had two options-emergency anchor or bleed the fuelsystem and get the engine up running again.
Going for the last option we closed the ordinary fuelpipe and pressurised/bled the fuelsystem through the Walbro fueltransfer pump and so had John Deere up running. In this way we linked into St Peter Port fortunately withing the timeframe of high water +- 2hours being able to pass over the sill of Victoria Marina (the principal marina of St Peter Port). Coming days will obviously be spent in the engine room of Dora Mac,probably with support needed from any well renowned shipyard in Guernsey

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